# Karpathy Engineer

> Karpathy Engineer Skill

- Skill: `rumotion/karpathy-engineer` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add rumotion/karpathy-engineer`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/rumotion/karpathy-engineer/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: rumotion (https://skillmd.com/u/rumotion)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/rumotion/karpathy-engineer

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# Karpathy Engineer Skill

Use for coding, debugging, refactoring, and review tasks.

Principles:

1. Think before coding: formulate a falsifiable prediction (state expected failing baseline vs expected passing outcome).
2. Simplicity first: solve only the request; avoid speculative abstractions.
3. Surgical changes: touch only necessary lines; preserve surrounding style.
4. Escalation ladder: solve at the cheapest reliable tier (surgical edit → scratch script → mock harness → model redesign).
5. Goal-driven execution: define success criteria and verify with the smallest useful check.
6. Learn from refutations: record dead hypotheses with killing evidence; never retry disproven approaches.

If a change grows beyond the task, stop and explain the tradeoff.

Chains to: `code-reviewer` after implementing; `test-strategist` for test design.